Return to School

[Brittany Clemmer]

Dear LAPS School Board,

My name is Brittany Carpenter and I am the parent of 4 children who attend LAPS schools; 2 at Chamisa, 1 at LAMS, and 1 at LAHS.  As you consider the return of secondary students to the classrooms, I hope you will consider a few points that we've learned from the last 9 months.

1.  Consistency is Key--Please give the kids the steady and consistent teaching they've received all year by staying in remote for their main academic time. When a positive case does occur, you can't just isolate the one classroom.  All it will do is disrupt the schedule and their learning.  Having children in the remote classroom 5 days a week opposed to 2 days a week is academically more beneficial for the children and the teachers. We saw it with the elementary schools and I appreciate the compromise that was made there but let's make sure we do the same for the middle and high school.

2. Changes mid-semester--When we enrolled our children in the fall, our numbers were hovering in the 30s. We made choices on hybrid versus fully remote with that in mind. Even now, we've made decisions to keep them where they are with the impression they were going to stay fully remote. I feel like everyone has been caught off guard with this announcement. I can't take my child out mid-semester even though I'm incredibly uncomfortable sending them to school. The numbers are so much higher than they were before and the variant strains are increasing but now it's ok to send them back? I don't understand. We've all made the best decisions we could at the time and changing it mid-semester is too much.  Please make sure that those who want to remain in remote can do so without it affecting their classes or their grades. 

3.  Teens--Of the three schools my children attend, I've received more emails from Mr. Payne regarding positive cases than any other school. I understand that the kids will have to wear masks and take precautions at school but seeing many of them not wearing masks outside of school and seeing steady stream of positive case from the HS, gives me great concern. Looking at Los Alamos County, teens ages 10-19 have the 3rd highest number of cases (as of Wed. night).  Now we're possibly putting them together in school.  Even in a hybrid situation, it is just increasing the risk for everyone.

4.  Vaccines--I understand that you're not in control of how many vaccines we receive and when. I realize that the NM Department of Health has changed its distribution plan. What I don't understand is why it coincides with the decision by the Governor to allow everyone to come back.  If the school board insists on going to hybrid, please at least wait until ALL of the teachers who want to be vaccinated have that opportunity.

I know there will be a lot of factors and emotion in this decision and I know there will be a lot of comments. Thank you for taking the time to read mine. I ask you to please keep the consistency we've had so far this year. I believe it's what's best for the academic success of our children.

Brittany Carpenter